Pharmaceutical Companies Find Imaginative New Ways To Screw Americans

Apparently, the pharmaceutical industry manages to attract some of the best criminal minds in the country. With extensive patent protections, the industry has engaged in massive price-gouging for decades. Having taken their cue from drug dealers throughout history, they managed to push highly addictive opioids on unsuspecting Americans by essentially misrepresenting the addictive dangers of the drug they were promoting and thereby created one of the worst public health problems in decades with massive opioid addiction.

But the pharameutical company Mylan really has outdone the competition when it comes to horrific corporate behavior. Besides the enormous price-gouging of EpiPens before their patent monopoly ran out, besides their engaging in clear tax avoidance, besides trying to get the government to force taxpayers and consumers to subsidize the company's profits, Mylan has crafted a brilliant plan to get tax credits to invest in coal which is known to increase asthma problems which, unsurprisingly, can be treated by two products that Mylan produces.

According to Reuters' Michael Erman, "Since 2011, Mylan has bought 99 percent stakes in five companies across the U.S. that own plants which process coal to reduce smog-causing emissions. It then sells the coal at a loss to power plants to generate the real benefit for the drug company: credits that allow Mylan to lower its own tax bill."

But the New Republic adds to that Reuters report by pointing out the coal fired power plants increase air pollution which leads to an increase in cases of severe asthma. And, unsurprisingly, Mylan offers two products, Perforomist, an inhaler that treats COPD, and EasiVent, which helps asthma medicine reach the lugs more efficiently.

The more you look at the pharmaceutical industry, the more you realize they are solely in business to ensure that consumers use their drugs as long as possible and pay as much as possible in the process. It's capitalism at it's best with results for actual Americans at its worst.